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Owner turns up; dog still on lam

Dutch was ordered euthanized after attack on woman

Jeremiah Aguilar, the owner of a dog accused of attacking a woman earlier this year, turned himself into Montrose County authorities Monday after a bench warrant was issued in April for his failure to appear for a contempt hearing.

“I’m just tired of all the stress this is causing,” Aguilar, 28, said Monday via cellphone.

Aguilar, an Army veteran, is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. June 6. However, his attorney Brandon Luna said he plans to ask for a change of date for that initial court appearance.

In mid-February, Aguilar was fined $500 and sentenced to two days in jail for showing little remorse when his dog Dutch, a 107-pound American Allaunt, attacked a woman, causing upwards of $30,000 in medical bills.

Judge Richard Brown also ordered that Dutch be euthanized.

When Aguilar failed to appear for a contempt hearing in April to explain why he hadn’t yet surrendered the dog to animal control as ordered, a bench warrant was issued, which resulted in Aguilar returning to Montrose from Oklahoma on Monday.

Luna said the “polarization” of this case has upset Aguilar, and they aren’t discussing what his client will do — or where he will live — until his scheduled court appearance. They also aren’t discussing where Dutch is.

In April, Aguilar said through a different attorney that Dutch had been turned over to an Oklahoma sanctuary.

Aguilar said Monday he wants the dog left out of the case going forward.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Col. Harold Emick, who brought nearly a dozen veterans together Monday to show support for Aguilar as he turned himself in. “They told him if he wanted an appeal hearing he had to turn himself in.”

Aguilar has said Dutch helped him with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.